Double-T Nation News:
I'm going to take my time this week. I'll probably work on the report card today, but may not post it until Monday. We've got so much to talk about I'm not real sure where to start, but for now enjoy the win, this doesn't happen very often.
Texas Tech Football:
- Lots of stuff from the LAJ starting with Don Williams game story
I wouldn’t expect the Raiders to come through on the road in that one, but hey. I’m blown away by 10-0, and how easy the Raiders made it look the last three weeks in getting there. In expecting a 10-2 season, clearly, I and a lot of other people underestimated this team.
Maybe if I had just overheard that conversation between Graham Harrell and Eric Morris on Tech’s team flight back from the Gator Bowl last January.
"He told me, ‘We’ve got a chance to be really special next year, ‘ and I said, ‘Yeah, we do, ‘ " Harrell said after his 456-yard, six-TD night. "Being 10-0’s great, but we have two regular-season games ahead of us. We want to go 12-0. That’s our goal."
Jeff Walker on the Texas Tech offense and George Watson talks to the OSU Cowboys:
Other than a fumble on Tech’s first series that resulted in Oklahoma State’s first touchdown, the Cowboys were never able to contain the Red Raiders.
"We got hit with a wakeup call," OSU linebacker Patrick Lavine said. "Usually our defense this season has made some plays, created some turnovers and tonight we weren’t able to do that. No one stepped up."
The Red Raiders didn’t just excel at pass defense. They held the Cowboys well below their season averages for passing yards, rushing yards and total yards and points, which was a far cry from last year’s game in Stillwater, Okla.
Oklahoma State racked up 610 total yards and had three different 100-yard rushers in a 49-45 victory, so it was gratifying for Tech’s defensive players to put together the type of performance they had Saturday.
"A lot of us were embarrassed by the way we played on defense, and we’ve always used that as what we don’t want to have happen again," Charbonnet said. "So it felt good to make some plays defensively and come up with some stops."
Don Williams has your Red Raiders Football Notebook and Jeff Walker looks at receiver Eric Morris' day:
While Mike Crabtree deservedly has received the attention as the Red Raiders’ - and the country’s - top receiver, Morris has been a solid option for quarterback Graham Harrell.
The Cowboys didn’t give up many big plays. Tech’s longest pass play went for 28 yards (Harrell to Lyle Leong).
"We had great tempo," Morris said. "When we’re in and out of huddles, that’s when we play our best. It’s not like the plays are perfect or we have the perfect scheme for everybody … Graham is just uncanny at getting in and out of his reads."
- ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin was at the game and has a ton of articles, Graham Harrell gets a Big 12 helmet sticker, the Texas Tech offense scored at will, the Red Raiders look ahead to Norman and OU, and the Texas Tech defense stepped up:
Understand this was the same Oklahoma State team that had scored at least 50 points five times this season.
"I'm very proud of how our defense played," Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. "They were very scrappy. It took us a little while to get on track. They tried to make too much happen early. But once we settled in and started to fire off the ball and caught on to the tricks they tried to play on us, we were ready."
The change was noticeable to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.
"Tech's defense is very good," Gundy said. "They are playing good football and tackling better and they're playing with a better pass rush. I said earlier this week that I thought their defense is really playing with an almost offensive style of play."
- From the FWST, Jimmy Burch on Texas Tech's BCS title potential, Keeli Garza on the joyride of Texas Tech's season, and Dwaine Price with his game story:
It lacked the theatrics of last week’s encounter against No. 1 Texas. But for the second-ranked Red Raiders, Saturday’s lopsided 56-20 win over No. 8 Oklahoma State was just as satisfying.
Quarterback Graham Harrell passed for 456 yards and a career-high tying six touchdowns as Texas Tech blasted the Cowboys before 55,663 at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Because No. 1 Alabama struggled to get past No. 15 LSU 27-21 in overtime, the Red Raiders could make a case that they should leap-frog the Crimson Tide and assume the nation’s top ranking.
"We may be No. 1, and we may not be," linebacker Marlon Williams said. "But I think they’ve got to recognize us now.
"We’ve proven that we can beat teams that everybody didn’t think we could beat, so I think we’ve earned the right to be No. 1."
- DMN checks in with Brandon George's notebook corrected an earlier Kirk Herbstreit report who claimed that Crabtree had a fracture, it is only a sprain and Kevin Sherrington on less buzz in Lubbock, but Texas Tech avoids the letdown:
This game bore no resemblance to last year's infamous meeting in Stillwater, where the teams combined for three-quarters of a mile of offense and both coaches boiled over in the news conferences.
Leach also fired his defensive coordinator after that loss, and the difference ever since is palpable. The Raiders now have a running game to go with their passing game, too.
Bottom line: Tech has demonstrated in the last two weeks that it has everything it needs to legitimately challenge for a national title.
Of course, it only gets harder from here. Leach now has an extra week to come up with something interesting for Oklahoma. Consider it a given.
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ESPN's Mark Schlabach says that Texas Tech is no flash in the pan:
But for those college football fans who believed Texas Tech's 39-33 upset of then-No. 1 Texas last week was a fluke, Leach and his team had this message for them on Saturday night: think again.
The No. 2 Red Raiders blasted No. 9 Oklahoma State 56-20 at Jones AT&T Stadium, scoring touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions to blow open a game that was supposed to be close at the end. Only a week after upsetting the Longhorns on Harrell's dramatic 28-yard touchdown pass to Crabtree with only one second to play, Texas Tech regained its focus and turned in its most dominating performance of the season.
"A lot of people thought we weren't mentally disciplined enough to keep our eyes on our work and take care of our job," Leach said. "I'm proud of our guys for proving those people wrong."
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SAEN's Mike Finger with his game story:
This time, the field at Jones AT&T Stadium remained largely unstormed, the last-second heroics completely unused, and the heart-stopping drama conspicuously untold.
Those are the kinds of elements that, if overdone, can turn into gimmicks.
And as the Texas Tech Red Raiders are proving to the country more and more every week, they’re no mere novelty act.
One week after setting off unbridled pandemonium with the biggest victory in school history, the No. 2 Red Raiders followed that with an even more convincing — if not more compelling — triumph over No. 8 Oklahoma State on Saturday. Led once again by Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, Tech kept its stunning march to a possible national championship alive with a 56-20 romp in front of 55,663 fans.
"We’ve said it all year," Harrell said. "We’ve got a chance to be pretty special."
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The Chron's Richard Justice says that Texas Tech makes it look easy:
Texas Tech turned a game into a clinic. A challenge became a statement. Are you paying attention, America?
It’s not just that the Red Raiders do amazing things week after week. Mike Leach was never much for numbers.
At some point, the numbers become a blur. The Red Raiders scored on seven straight possessions during one stretch and ran up 629 yards of offense Saturday night in a 56-20 beatdown of Oklahoma State.
And Graham Harrell spread his 40 completions and 456 passing yards among eight receivers. Greatest this, best that. Been there, done that.
Maybe the most incredible thing about the Red Raiders is they make it seem so easy. Harrell is so unflappable in the pocket it looks like he’s standing there deciding who is going to get the next catch.
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Dr. Saturday with a couple of thoughts:
I suppose some skeptics will still use the logo on the side of the helmet as an excuse for cynicism about the "the system" or the defense or Big 12 defenses in general, for the sake of hating. But there's only one possible way to even begin to slow this offense down, and that's to get in the receivers' faces, play man-to-man and pray your men are good enough. Texas' men weren't good enough; Oklahoma State's weren't even close. Maybe Oklahoma has a fighting chance in two weeks, with the way the Sooners' offense is humming on the other side. But I'm beginning to prefer Leach, Harrell and Crabtree to divine intervention.
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NewsOK's Berry Tramel with his game story:
The Oklahoma State Cowboys reached the end of the road out here on the lonely frontier that some say is the end of the Earth.
But the Cowboys can find some solace in their 56-20 loss Saturday night to mighty Texas Tech. Their defeat was a group effort.
Victors at Missouri and valiant in defeat at Texas, the Cowboys failed to retain such road-warrior status. Jones Stadium is a pit that can swallow even good teams whole, and OSU was consumed like so many Cowboy teams before them.
"We got dominated," State coach Mike Gundy said. "We lost the game as a group."